And the new Idol is ......
The battle of the Davids came right down to the wire last night as millions of Canadians and Americans tuned in to watch the grand finale of the number one show on television.
In yesterday's column, I confidently predicted that David Archuleta would win last night because it was clear that the judges chose him during the performance show. Randy was effusive in his praise. Paula was gushing (and surprisingly lucid). Simon declared that Little David had scored a knockout by winning all three singing rounds: a song chosen by music legend Clive Davis, a new song written for the competition chosen by the contestants themselves, and a final song of their choosing.
With that said -- and my prediction that Little David would win -- I sat before my television last night not terribly sure that I would be correct. In fact, all my usual signs were pointing in the direction of a clear win for David Cook (i.e. "Big David").
Every online poll I consulted was predicting a David Cook win, while every reviewer I read said David Archuleta would win. I didn't know what to think at all.
At the beginning of the show, host Ryan Seacrest announced that a record-breaking 97.5 million votes were called or texted in after Tuesday's performance show. That broke last year's record by 23 million votes. Ryan also announced that one David got 56 per cent of the vote, while the other got 44 per cent, an interesting figure since I thought it would be closer than that. According to Ryan, the number of votes this week was more than the total number of people living in Canada, Spain, Ireland and Australia put together.
Prediction website dialidol.com was predicting a strong David Cook win last night. They boast a 100-per-cent success rate (so far) in predicting the final winner of the show, so at this point, I was seriously questioning my prediction that Little David would be wearing the 2008 American Idol crown. It wasn't looking good.
Over at the rickey.org blog written by Ricky Yaneza -- a very strong Little David supporter -- the online poll there was also giving Cook the edge. Like me, Yaneza also noticed that there was a bit of a schizophrenic divide between reviewers and polls -- with reviewers almost unanimously predicting an Archuleta win, while polls were predicting a Cook win. A very strange situation indeed!
Despite the signs pointing toward a win by Cook, I found it hard to believe that Archuleta would lose because he was so clearly the judges' choice on Tuesday. I can't remember an occasion when the winner has not been correctly chosen by the judges. And believe me, for anyone who watched Tuesday's show, Little David was definitely the judges' favourite.
The grand finale, if you missed it, was an extravaganza of stars, including the Top 12 Idols. Comedian Mike Myers introduced his new character, The Love Guru. Disco queen and music legend Donna Summer sang her new single Stamp Your Feet. (If you disagree with my suggestion that she's a "legend", keep in mind that her first hit single was more than 30 years ago.) She also performed Last Dance, which won the Oscar for Best Song three decades ago. Also appearing were comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who did a pretty funny joke about Sanjaya Malakar parking cars outside. Canadian rocker Bryan Adams made an appearance singing a couple of songs, including Somebody.
Also appearing were ZZ Top, who rocked out in fine style with David Cook. Graham Nash, who performed with Brooke White. The mega-popular Jonas Brothers sang S.O.S., while One Republic performed Apologize with David Archuleta. American Idol 2007 Jordin Sparks sang One Step at a Time. Actors Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. performed in a skit as Gladys Knight's Pips. 2005 American Idol Carrie Underwood sang Last Name -- very well, may I add!
The rumour that George Michael would make a rare-as-hen's-teeth appearance was true. He sang Praying for Time after a medley of his hits by the Top 12.
Then it was time for the announcement of the winner -- always a dramatic, drawn-out event. Finally, Ryan announced that David Cook was the 2008 American Idol. He cried, thanked David Archuleta, and sang his song, Time of My Life The crowd went nuts. The online polls and dialidol.com were right.
Well, that's all folks! It's been a real pleasure writing Idol Chatter for you during this season of American Idol. Thanks for reading! Canadian Idol starts on June 3. Like you, I can't wait.
n Brian Cormier is a writer and communications consultant. He may be contacted at brian@briancormier.com or visit his blog at www.briancormier.com.
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